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A brook so low you barely got your ankles wet divided a village for over four decades. Due to a quirk of geography, the 50 locals of Mödlareuth, a hamlet bordered by pine forests, meadows and spectacular vistas, found themselves at the heart of the cold war. They had the misfortune to straddle Bavaria, in Western Germany, and Thuringia in the East, a border that was established first by a enclosure and then by a partition. American soldiers called it Mini Berlin.

Preserving Historical Events

A few months after their own barrier was torn down, and before their nation had reunified in 1990, a group of residents began documenting their history. The work is close to come to fruition: on 9 November, the 36th remembrance of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth will inaugurate. It was formally opened by the head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely ready. Telling the residents who lived through the old days, Steinmeier stated: “You were witnesses of an cruel separation, which ripped families asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman division, which ripped relatives into pieces and turned neighbours into strangers.”

Historical Context

Even at its creation in 1810, the village cut across the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most famous for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth. As Steinmeier informed the crowd, the quirk was never an obstacle in the way of the inhabitants drinking in the identical tavern, attending the very same place of worship and sending their children to the very same educational institution.

Post-War Separation

Next arrived the second world war. The moment they arrived, the Soviet forces installed timber poles by the stream. For a year they occupied the entire community, creating their control center in a dwelling on the western side, adorning it with a image of Stalin and a communist symbol. The US forces urged them to withdraw across the creek. For a time, residents could still cross over, though as controls became stricter they were obliged to display identification, even though all was aware who they were, and to return at evening.

Increase of Boundary Restrictions

Subsequently, in 1952, came metal barriers and the formal sealing of the border. In 1966, as in Berlin half a decade before, a wall was constructed, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and observation points. The residents could still see each other by scaling hills, but on the Soviet side signaling and shouting were banned. One woman was added to a East German secret police surveillance list for answering “likewise” to a Bavarian local who said her “good new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard narratives including these tales by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has devoted a significant portion of his professional career building it. Villagers were asked early on about how much structure they wished to maintain. They selected a section on the west edge, near where one of their own was able to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the frontier was heavily reinforced.

Maintained Buildings

A pair of guard towers are maintained in addition to a collection of exhibits showing the most dramatic moments in the community’s history. As we walk, Lebergen details the regulations: no one could come within 5km of the frontier. Rural residents needed particular approval to look after their produce; the partner could operate the harvesting machine but never the pair, lest they attempted to escape. Armed guards were on duty.

Larger Perspective

The frontier between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic extended nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the south in the south. Berlin is commemorated and honored the most frequently, but more than twice as many people (more than 300) were killed trying to traverse it in provincial zones than in the big city. Lebegern informs me that 95 percent of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Existence

Most of Mödlareuth’s residents were rural laborers or artisans, who accommodated to living in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by keeping their heads down and caring for their fields. They neither endorsed the communist regime nor fought it, Robert Lebegern states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the settlement became a kind of pilgrimage. Roughly 15k came to visit each year, binoculars in their hands, to look – and then quickly leave. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was shown around by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a TV series about a fictional community like Mödlareuth, resulted in renewed attention.

Modern Changes

The launch of the new museum – with a cafe, shop, cinema room and big car park – is likely to